National post pulls actually wrong story that falsely claimed 800,000 “ ineligible people ” received CERB

The National Post came up with a story that falsely claimed that nearly one million “ineligible people” received Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As economists have pointed out, the claim was factually incorrect.

The story, which was published under the subtitle “Postmedia News”, was under a false headline stating, “More than 800,000 ineligible people received CERB, costing nearly $ 1.7 billion, CRA documents reveal.”

More than 800,000 ineligible people received CERB, costing nearly $ 1.7 billion, CRA documents reveal https://t.co/fDYgvQaMda

– National Post (@nationalpost) November 19, 2020

Postmedia, the parent company of the National Post and owner of many of Canada’s leading newspapers, has published the story in at least 17 of its papers.

However, less than 24 hours after its first publication, the National Post changed the original title to “Tory MP asks for answers as to why 800,000 non-tax applicants received CERB at a cost of nearly $ 1.7 billion” without issuing any notice of correction ..

A few hours later, the National Post archived the story entirely, although the story was still visible in the Toronto Sun and Ottawa Citizen on Friday night.

A “404 Page Missing” error message is now displayed on the National Post website, along with a cartoon beaver looking apologetically, “Oops!”

National post

According to Canadaland, dozens of current and former Postmedia reporters have expressed concern about the company’s executives directing “all of its newspapers to switch to the political right, centrally and unprecedentedly” in recent years.

The Postmedia story did not cite a single tax or other expert on the subject, but cited a Conservative MP.

The first paragraph of the story stated that a lone Conservative MP had discovered “800,000 ineligible people have received checks for emergency response grants in Canada.”

Except there was one small problem with that statement: the people who received the CERB were not actually “ineligible”.

In case you saw that National Post headline a few days ago about 800,000 ineligible people receiving CERB, that’s not true. The premise of the article was based on a factual error by the reporter. Detailed explanation below. https://t.co/EaU3coAlDY

– Robyn Gibbard 🧼👏 (@robyngibbard) November 20, 2020

The Postmedia story was based on the original Blacklock’s Reporter report, which indicated that it asked for comment from the Canadian Revenue Agency but received no explanation prior to publication on the 823,850 people who failed to file 2019 tax returns and received $ 2,000 CERB checks monthly.

Postmedia cited the Blacklock report, but presented unanswered questions about their eligibility as if it were an established fact that 800,000 people were ineligible.

In a statement a PressProgress, Canada Revenue Agency has confirmed that tax reporting is not a requirement to be considered eligible for CERB.

“For emergency benefits, people don’t need to have filed a tax return,” a spokesperson for the CRA clarified.

“As such, it would be incorrect to conclude that claims from applicants who have not filed a tax return are paid to fraudsters or ineligible persons.”

The spokesperson explained that “CERB income eligibility is determined on the basis of an individual who has earned a minimum of $ 5,000 (before tax) in the past 12 months or in 2019 from one of the following sources: employment, self-employment or provincial allowance. relating to maternity or paternity leave. “

In other words, failing to submit a 2019 tax slip does not disqualify someone from receiving CERB – they never did.

No, 800,000 ineligible Canadians did not receive the CERB. https://t.co/CbsiTxSek4

– Dr Lindsay Tedds 🌈👼🏻🇨🇦🇬🇧🇮🇪🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 (@LindsayTedds) November 19, 2020

Postmedia’s story has received extensive criticism from economists and other subject matter experts.

In a blog titled “No, 800,000 Ineligible Canadians Didn’t Receive CERB,” University of Calgary economics professor Lindsey Tedds explained why the National Post facts were completely wrong:

“I mean, hell, you know this is just a clickbait with an iota of knowledge of the CERB benefit. Was the tax return an eligibility criterion? No. Let’s go through this step by step.

Is the tax return a general legal requirement? No not at all. Although there are various corner cases, the most important aspect of the tax return is that only people with a balance due to the CRA are required to file a tax return. What do you say? Yes. Legally, a deposit is required if you owe money. It isn’t necessary if you don’t. So anyone who has a refund due is NOT required to submit the request and anyone for whom the withholding tax covers their tax invoice is not required to submit the request. The fact that people declare is more because most people (2/3) owe a refund and really want it or because they don’t really know the rules or want to access tax benefits like Canada Child Benefit (CCB). .

You could have earned $ 0 in 2019 but earned $ 5,000 in 2020 and be eligible for the CERB. And guess what, WE HAVE NOT SUBMITTED THE 2020 TAX ​​THIS YEAR! The deadline for submitting the 2020 fees is currently set for April 30, 2021 “.

Tedds added that “the National Post should be embarrassed by the way its bias leads to such disgusting mistakes.”

Postmedia itself received $ 21 million in emergency wage subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic, though the company recently announced plans to fire local newspaper reporters despite posting a fourth-quarter profit.